10 Comments

1. 

   Paige is determinedly anti-nerd (as a reaction to her brother).

2. 

   Nothing to do with technology; just that Nicole is more popular than Paige (who thinks denial is a river in Egypt).

3. 

   Is Paige ignorant though? Aside from the “Duh” for Andy’s suggestions, isn’t this just a typical Fox family clever drawn-out case of her trying to garner sympathy from her mother to the fact that Nicole is more popular than she?

4. 

   If Paige is deleting photos, that sounds pretty ignorant.

5. 

   I agree with Andréa: it’s not stupidity, it the Egyptian river effect. She’s grasping at straws, trying to find some reason (any reason) that could make the lack of text messages the phone’s fault, and not her own problem.

6. 

   Cell phones aren’t exactly “new” technology.

7. 

   Further to the denial thing: this isn’t really a joke about cell phones, it’s just a good cell phone version of a joke. It could be about phones (Our phone isn’t working, the calls from boys never seem to connect) or even about mail (the valentines aren’t getting delivered). So I don’t think it counts as the exception. Although I’m saying this partially because there is no way that *this* is the mother who would be explaining cell phones to her children.

8. 

   Well, to the cartoonist’s credit, he can resist the idea of “cell phones, new fangled things! Am I right. And kids take to them and grown -up are left behind. Ain’t that hilarious” The fact that he can have an adult and a child have a conversation about cell-phones as though cell phones are …. common and relatively familiar… is in comics universe nearly unheard of.

   I don’t think the mother is being knowledgeable and Paige is being ignorant. They are just having a conversation about a common item and ideas that average people might suggest when there is a problem.

9. 

   Okay, so what comics mother would be the choice to teach her children about cell phones? Pam from Brewster Rockit? Lindesfarne from Kevin & Kell? Or someone else?

10. 

    Janis?